Dr T. M. Nair
1868 – 1919
Physician, Corporation councillor and co-founder of the Justice Party, who edited its English daily from the first issue in 1917 until his death.
Taravath Madhavan Nair (15 January 1868 – 17 July 1919) was a physician and politician of the Madras Presidency and one of the founders of the Justice Party, with P. Theagaraya Chetty and C. Natesa Mudaliar.
Nair and Theagaraya Chetty had been rivals in the Madras Corporation council; Natesa Mudaliar reconciled them, and their partnership became the core of the new movement. When negotiations with the first choice of editor broke down, Nair took over as honorary editor of the English daily Justice, which first appeared on 26 February 1917. He drafted the party's objectives, published in The Hindu on 18 October 1917.
A fierce critic of Annie Besant's Home Rule movement, Nair had earlier won a defamation suit she brought against him in 1913 over an article in his medical journal, Antiseptic. In 1918 the party sent him to London to lobby for communal representation; he addressed Members of Parliament and wrote pamphlets there. He died on 17 July 1919, before he could give evidence to the Joint Select Committee.
Key contributions
- Co-founded the South Indian Liberal Federation in November 1916
- Honorary editor of the Justice daily from its first issue on 26 February 1917
- Drafted the party's objectives, published in October 1917
- Led the 1918 lobbying mission to London for communal representation